LCA, Life-cycle assessment (also known as life-cycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis) is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from-cradle-to-grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling). [read more: wikipedia >>]
Such a concept can be applied to Qasbaum’s modules, when used as residential space, to plan their development over time, following the changing needs of its inhabitants in their life span. So, a young couple could start with a basic scheme composed by 3 modules, and later new modules may be added following the family development and/or its assets conditions (i.e., child’s birth, elderly care, new living needs etc.). Later, when elderly age approaches, the couple, may decide to reduce its living space and break their home into different parts: some modules may become a small vacation house, two or three modules may be the starting point for their daughter or son’s housing unit, and the remaining part may become a comfortable, ground-floor detached house.
Such an approach can be defined as HH-LCA, Human/House Life Cycle Assessment. HH-LCA aims at reducing the environmental and economic impact caused by urban settlements: through the modules’ composition and decomposition options, every house’s part maintains both its functional and economic intrinsic value. Each module can be reused, and the overall concept of recycling changes, so that it does not refer solely to the raw-materials, but the whole house and each of its functional parts can now be efficiently recycled.
Although a house can be easily enlarged, when a house becomes too large, because needs have changed, and it significantly impacts on the costs (think about heating and cooling, maintenance and cleaning costs and time), the only option is to move out and to find a new, more efficient, house. The static idea of home, considered as an unchangeable entity, is transformed and the new idea oh home is that of a living and adaptable part of life. Changes and transformations of the house are the result of new needs rather than representing a status symbol. In its whole life cycle, Qasbaum could be an example of sustainable growth and happy degrowth.
Carlo Bughi | Architect 